


A Difficult Door

by thejilyship



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arguing, Banter, Canon Compliant, F/M, Hogwarts Seventh Year, but without the broom cupboard, hogwarts ships jily, it's a broom cupboard fic, the castle is the third character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28417983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/pseuds/thejilyship
Summary: James and Lily are running late to class, when they find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar part of the castle
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55
Collections: James and Lily Fanfics





	A Difficult Door

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm digging through my tumblr and finding some one shots that I would like to be a bit more easily assessable to everyone, myself included. When I only post them on tumblr, I forget about them, which is sometimes fine, even preferred. But some of it I really like, so I'm gonna post it here!   
> If you've seen this before, I'm sorry that I made you think I posted something new. If you haven't seen it before, surprise! It's new to you!  
> Enjoy!

“This is your fault,” Lily said, holding her Charms book against her chest as she marched down the corridor, anxious over the fact that she was going to arrive at her class late. She hated being late, it made the back of her neck feel prickly, even if Flitwick had never given her a hard time for anything over the course of her Hogwarts career. She was Head Girl now, and she’d never been late to Charms and so she felt even more anxious than that time she had walked in late to Potions. 

“Of course it is,” James muttered, though despite his languid tone, he was keeping pace with her, and to his credit, he didn’t seem too thrilled about the fact that they were going to be late either. Flitwick wouldn’t shout at them or deduct points in front of the entire class, but he would look at them like he was disappointed, and that was somehow worse. James didn’t do well with people he respected being disappointed in him. 

This extended to Lily. 

“Do you believe that this is somehow, not your fault?” Lily asked, pushing open a large oak door befitting the old castle. She used too much force and it clanged loudly against the stone wall behind it. 

The door slammed shut behind them and Lily turned her head to glare at James, because honestly, that was childish. (Even though she’d slammed it open. Frustration might just be the least rational of all emotions.)

He glared right back, assuming her glare was still about what had happened in the student office. 

It mostly was, but it also wasn’t. 

It wasn’t really about the door either. 

They reached another door in the corridor and Lily hesitated for a moment before opening it, because she couldn’t remember it being there the last time she went down the hall. Perhaps it wasn’t, the castle changed as it wished after all. 

She opened it and less than ten paces from where they were, was another door. The same type. Large, thick, oak and old. Lily tilted her head to the side and looked over at James. “Did I take a wrong turn?” Lily used to have stress dreams about getting lost in the castle on exam days. Today was not an exam day, but being lost with James might be worse. 

Perhaps. 

Probably not. 

“What?” He snapped, too lost in thought to be paying attention to the odd placement of doors. 

“I asked you if I took a wrong turn,” She repeated, turning to face him, a hand on her hip, still hugging her book to her chest. “There are too many doors in this hallway for it to be the right way to Charms.” 

“I don’t even understand why you’re so upset about being late. We’re the Head Students-”

“You’re not listening to me!” Lily threw up her hand, “Like always. Where are we?”

James was about to make a snide remark, but then he looked around, saw the two identical doors so closely placed together and tilted his head to the side. “Well this is strange.” He walked over to the door that they’d walked through and pulled it open. Or, at least he tried to pull it open, but it didn’t budge. 

Lily reached out and tried the other door again, but it decided not to budge either. 

“Are you doing this?” Lily asked, though even as she said it, she didn’t think that he was doing anything to the doors. 

“How would I be manipulating the castle? I mean, I’m thrilled that you think I’m capa-”

“James, what is going on?” 

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged, “I mean, I know that sometimes the doors get funny and lead you to the wrong corridor or something, but I’ve never heard of something like this happening. We’re locked in here.” He looked back and forth between the two doors. “Is the room getting smaller?” 

“What?” Lily started panicking, but then she looked around and shook her head. “No, the room is not shrinking, stop trying to scare me.”

“I’m not trying to scare you, Evans, it is an actual concern I am having.” He had his hand over his heart now and he was taking deep breaths, looking very much like he was concerned about it. 

“Try your door again.” Lily said, reaching out to the door nearest her again. But nothing happened. Not even when she pulled out her wand and tried a few spells that were meant to open doors. When she looked back at James, he shook his head.

“I guess we just have to wait until the door decides to let us out. You shouldn’t have slammed it against the wall like you did.” He pushed his glasses up his nose and then leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was seated on the floor.

“Me? You slammed it too!”

“I did not! You slammed it against the wall and then I jumped in after you, narrowly avoiding getting hit in the face as it bounced off the wall and slammed shut. I didn’t know you had such impressive upper body strength.” 

Lily flushed, as she hadn’t meant to slam the door that hard and maybe for another reason. “Do you really think the door is upset with me” She asked, chewing on the inside of her cheek and glancing over at the door. 

James was quiet for a moment and then he started laughing. 

“What?” 

“Are you really concerned that you’ve upset a door?” He asked, his voice still full of mirth. 

“Of course I am, since that door has the ability to trap us in this room forever.” Lily huffed and then slid down the wall opposite of James so that they were sitting across from one another on the flagstone floor. 

“You might have a point, but still, it’s a door. You seem to love it when I’m upset with you, but if a door is upset…” He trailed off, shaking his head. 

“Are you upset with me?” Lily asked, that not sitting right with her. 

“Don’t you want me to be?” James asked, quirking a brow at her. “You’re always shouting at me and blaming me for things I didn’t do and trying to make me feel bad about making you late to class even when it was an accident.” 

There was hyperbole there, and Lily could hear it, but she could also hear the truth in his words. “I honestly just assumed you liked getting under my skin. It didn’t dawn on me that I might have been being a bit… dramatic about the whole thing.”

“Evans, I’m constantly doing whatever I can to make sure that I don’t upset you. I know it’s hard to tell, since you’re always looking for a reason to be upset with me, but still, I do try.” 

“I am not-” She could feel herself getting upset again and she took a deep breath. She looked at him, watching him run a hand through his hair and glance over at her. “You definitely said that to get a rise out of me.” She said, but she said it calmly. 

“No, I said it because it’s true.” He countered. 

“It is not true. I am not always looking for a reason to be upset with you.” He just offered up so many reasons for her to be upset with him that she was often upset with him. But it was his own doing, not hers. 

“Alright,” He sighed. “So in your mind, you think that I go around, thinking of nothing other than ways I can ‘get under your skin.’ That’s how I spend all my free time? When Sirius tosses me a note and it goes too far and hits you in the back of the head, I somehow orchestrated it? When I’m using a book that you were planning on using in the library, you think I somehow read your mind and knew what book you wanted?” 

It all sounded a little ridiculous when he put it like that. But in the moment, it had certainly seemed like he had been trying to bother her. “I didn’t know that Sirius had thrown that note.” 

“Course you didn’t. You didn’t want to listen to me.” 

“Well,” She shrugged her shoulders and huffed. “I mean, you can’t really blame me, can you? You used to go around doing things just to bother me. You might have sto-”

“No I didn’t.” He sighed and leaned his head against the wall. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the little snitch that he always seemed to have on him, even though he was a chaser. “I know that I’ve pulled some stupid stunts in the past that have, rightfully, angered you, but I never went into any situation hoping that you would walk away pissed.” 

That just sounded completely false. “Really? No situation?” 

The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Alright, that’s not fair. There was a few months last year, after we came back from Summer Hols, but only because you were refusing to speak to me otherwise.” 

“Of course I didn’t want to talk to you! I was angry with you!” 

“Yeah,” He nodded, his hand raked through his hair again. “Rightfully so.” 

“Gee, thanks for that.” She rolled her eyes, but for the first time since the incident down by the lake, she could see that he was remorseful about what had happened. That was more than she could say for Severus. He had said that he was sorry, over and over and over, but he wasn’t. Not truely. If he was truly sorry, then he wouldn’t still be hanging out with people like Burke and Mulciber, people who were going to be death eaters once they graduated, people who believed that Lily being in school was an offence to them and their pure blood families. 

“I know that was a long time ago,” She said quietly, tucking her hair back behind her ear and then crossing her arms over her chest. “And I don’t mean to get so upset with you all the time. I guess it’s just easier.”

James narrowed his eyes. “Easier than what? Not being upset with me all the time?” 

Lily gave him a small grin and shook her head. “Maybe. Blaming you for a lot of stuff that’s happened these last couple of years though, it’s easier than actually dealing with it.” 

James dropped his head so his chin was touching his chest. “Evans, that’s not fair.”

“Well I thought you deserved it. Most of last year, I thought it was your fault.” 

“Are you talking about Snape?” He asked, looking up at her. 

“Yeah, but not just him saying that word. I tried to blame you for why he would even think to use that word in the first place. I didn’t want it to be his fault I guess, and you were always finding a reason to mess with him.” James opened his mouth and Lily cut him off. “I know that he was doing the same thing.” 

James was quiet. “I’m sorry.” 

“No, stop.” Lily shook her head. “I’m sorry that I’ve spent all morning shouting at you. And that I’ve gotten us trapped in this room. And that I’ve been holding a grudge for too long.” 

“Well, thank you, but I’m sorry too.” James crossed his legs, one of his knees bouncing. “I know that everyone always gave you slack for being friends with him in the first place, but it’s hard to watch someone that you know turn themselves into something you don’t recognize.” 

Lily tilted her head to the side. He was right. None of her friends had understood why she’d hung out with Severus, even before he’d started down the wrong path- or maybe he’d always been on the wrong path. She’d spent a lot of time thinking she could pull him back in the right direction just by showing him the Muggleborns could be the opposite of what his other friends were telling him. She might have worked harder in potions to get competing grades with him, she worked hard in all of her classes so she would have top marks, so that no one could point at her and say, ‘see, it’s because she’s a muggleborn, they’re just not as good at magic.’ 

It was all toxic, it was all heartbreaking. Because she’d asked him before they went to Hogwarts, and he told her that it didn’t matter. He’d lied from the beginning. He made an exception for her, but the moment he got angry with her, he’d used that word. 

“Do you know what that’s like?” She asked quietly. 

James nodded. “I mean, not to the same degree. But I grew up with a lot of these kids. Wilkes and I were friends before his dad threw his support behind a bill that would have limited the number of muggle borns admitted to Hogwarts each year. I mean, we were still friends after that, since we were nine and we didn’t understand at the time. Emma Vanity, Davie Greengrass, we had a lot of lessons together before Hogwarts.” 

Lily raised her brow. Surprised to hear that all these future death eaters had once been innocent children, and that they’d been friends with James. 

She stood up and brushed her skirt off. “Okay, I have an idea.” She said. James was looking up at her from the floor, his brow furrowed. 

“What’s your idea?” Lily held out her hand to help him off the floor, and he took it without hesitating. 

“I think we should start over.” She said, letting go of his hand once he was on his feet. “I can’t promise that I won’t mess up, but I think we should just wipe the slate clean and start over.” 

James’ brows shot up his forehead. “Really?” 

“Yes. I mean, we’ve both made mistakes, but why not? We’re not the same people that we were a couple of years ago, otherwise you wouldn’t be head boy and I- well, I would probably still be head girl, but still.” She shrugged and James laughed. 

“This sounds like a good idea.” He nodded. 

Lily grinned and held out her hand again, this time in mock greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Lily Evans.” 

“James Potter,” His grin grew and he took her hand. She smiled back at him. “You have one of the best smiles I’ve ever seen.” 

Lily felt her cheeks heat up, but her smile didn’t shrink. “Well, thank you!” She dropped her hand and looked back and forth between the two doors. “Do you think we should try them again?” 

“We’re going to be very late,” James nodded, walking toward one door. Lily walked toward the other. 

“Ready?” She asked, looking over her shoulder. 

James nodded. 

Both doors opened. 


End file.
